Ronnie Musgrove on Health Care

2008 Senate challenger; previously Democratic MS Governor

Protect Mississippi’s Health Care Trust Fund

We’re attacking the problems faced by rural citizens in keeping access to health care open & available. We must ensure our dedicated state employees have the quality health insurance they deserve. And, we must protect one of Mississippi’s best investment
- the Health Care Trust Fund. Mississippi is one of only five states to remain committed to using the tobacco settlement for the Health Care needs of our people. Many states have used their tobacco settlement to fund deficits in their general budget.

Source: 2002 Mississippi State of the State Address
, Jan 16, 2002

Enrolled 50,000 in the Children’s Health Insurance Program

Medicaid is so much more than another government agency. It means health insurance for our children, elderly and disabled. The success of Medicaid is evidenced by the enrollment of 87,000 new recipients in the past year.
In January of 2000, less than 600 children were enrolled in the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Today, that number is nearly 50,000.

Source: 2002 Mississippi State of the State Address
, Jan 16, 2002

Medical Education Scholarships for rural doctors

The creation last year of Medical Education Scholarship Programs provides full scholarships for up to twenty new recipients each year provided they agree to serve ten years in family medicine in a critical needs area of our state. In tandem with
licensing physicians’ assistants we will begin to see the expansion of access to health care particularly in rural areas. Continuing the effort to recruit doctors and other health care providers to rural Mississippi remains a top priority.

Source: 2001 State of the State Address to Mississippi legislature
, Jan 4, 2001

Invest in state employees’ health plan, despite budget

Mississippi’s package of health benefits for state employees may be better than some states across our nation, but it’s not good enough. As with private plans, deductibles continue to increase while coverage seems to shrink every year. We must
not use the budget as an excuse to avoid tackling the difficult issues in health care. We may not solve all the problems with health insurance costs quickly, but we can begin with a sound investment in the health insurance we offer our state employees.

Source: 2001 State of the State Address to Mississippi legislature
, Jan 4, 2001

No federal pre-emption of employee health plan regulation.

Musgrove adopted the National Governors Association position paper:

The Issue

In 1999, 42.6 million Americans did not have health insurance. All states have been fervently working to reduce the number of uninsured Americans, to make health insurance more affordable and secure, and to provide quality health care at a reasonable cost to the uninsured. However, the federal government has also expressed an interest in this issue. Any action taken at the federal level could have serious implications for traditional state authority to regulate the health insurance industry and protect consumers.

NGA’s Position

Although the Governors are extremely sensitive to the concerns of large multi-state employers, the fact remains that the complete federal preemption of state laws relating to employee health plans in the Employment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) is the greatest single barrier to many state reform and patient protection initiatives.

The Governors support efforts designed to enable small employers to join together to participate more effectively in the health insurance market. In fact, Governors have taken the lead in facilitating the development of such partnerships and alliances. However, these partnerships must be carefully structured and regulated by state agencies in order to protect consumers and small businesses from fraud and abuse and underinsurance. NGA opposes attempts to expand federal authority under ERISA. The Governors have identified the prevention of such federal legislation in the 107th Congress as a top legislative priority.

States have the primary responsibility for health insurance regulation. Across the nation, Governors are working to protect consumers and patients and to properly regulate the complicated health insurance industry.